1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a filler for automatically expanding a soft bag in all shapes and sizes, such as a purse, a suitcase, a tote bag, a backpack, a sports bag and like bags, for display purposes at a point-of-sale site.
2. Description of the Related Art
Soft bags are typically shipped from a manufacturer to a point-of-sale site in a generally collapsed condition to minimize shipping space and freight costs. At or near the point-of-sale site, the collapsed bags are stuffed, typically manually with crumpled wads of paper, inflated inserts, or corrugated board, rigid inserts of the type exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,077,451; 4,141,399; 4,142,564; 4,969,751; 4,993,846; and 5,030,014.
Stuffing bags with paper wads is labor- and cost-intensive. Inflating inserts requires a source of a pressurized gas, and constant vigilance to resist gas leaks. The known rigid inserts disclosed in the above patents are assembled from multiple sheet members, thereby increasing manufacturing and labor costs, and sometimes such rigid inserts do not uniformly expand the soft bags.